well, i think i got most of you beat. i used to work installing win98 on machines to be installed for one of the big three automakers. here's the process:

1) unpack machine
2) setup machine
3) pop in image boot disc
4) watch the blue bar
5) pack machine back up
6) repeat for 9 hours

the whole process took about 20 minutes. yeah, imagine doing that 40 hours a week. UGH.

they recently rotated me though... now i'm a tech support analyst... or so they tell me. basically, we have 350,000 users to support, and almost 50,000 applications (almost every single one i've never heard of). it's not as boring, but stressful as hell when you get a user calling complaining their [random acronym] doesn't work and i have to figure out how to fix it based on two paragraphs of documentation.

i need a job where they appreciate me. :-)

I work at a job where I sit at a desk all day answering phones doing tech support for M$ Money and Quicken for a credit union. Sys admins are idiots who keep trying to catch me doing illegal stuff on their computers.... they spent three hours one day trying to find evidence on my computer...by looking through sysedit and the registry as if i was that retarded......then not only that but customers calling in to tell me they cant connect well duh when ur not connected to internet that problem is gonna occur....


gawd i hate this job

it's not my job, but today i was quite amazed at the two or three people currently being employed by the supermarket up the road, which is currently being refitted. they stand at the entrance all day long, stopping each car in turn as they come in, and they tell them that the store is closed for refurbishment. that's it. the idea of just putting a big sign up, with the word "closed" on it seems to have escaped them somewhere...

I do Macintosh desktop support for an entire college campus. Man oh man do I turn a lot of monitors and printers on. The one thrilling part is the slow introduction of OSX to the standard image. Soon all of your base will belong to me since I will have root (necessarily) on every box on 40k student campus.

yet, booooooooring. I work on machines that I wouldn't buy even if I could afford them.

I had this happen once, but I was warned that it was going to happen the next day. I work at night, unsupervised for the second half of the day. I figured the warning was a shakedown to get me to try and clean the box so they could find evidence of a recent scrubbing.

I got into a habit long ago of carrying around Tomsrtbt, ZipSlack, all 4 install floppies to Slack 8, a few Linux distros, and Win 98 in my bag. I also as luck would have it at the time, had Office on me as well. I spent an hour ftp'ing my stuff up to my home machine. Then I changed the date in BIOS back half a decade (Yeah, P1 200, and this wasn't that long ago), formatted the hard drive, re-installed the OS, set the clock forward 2 years, installed Office 97, set it forward a year or so and installed the 3-4 other 'allowed' programs I'm supposed to use. Then I downloaded all of the goop that actually went along with my job. In the end I got chewed out for something... I can't remember what, but the machine hadn't been formatted after my 2 predecessors so I blamed everything on them.

A friend of mine, faced with similar circumstances, just cracked open his box, took out the hard drive and kicked it around a while before putting it back in.

Why are MCSEs given this sort of power?

Cheers,

Finegan

hehe, that's brilliant. anyone dare try that on me and i'll [insert gratuitous violence scene] them. That'll be *nix admin tho, so wouldn't ever be needed anyway.. maybe i'll routinely dust for prints and shoe prints.

Well I dont personally do this, but here is job that I cant imagine being nice.

What about those jerks that try to stop you to make sure you are not stealing anything fromt here beloved store? They check your receipt, your merchandise, and let you pass.

I give them alot of sass. Actually, I dont even stop for them, or for the buzzer thingy if it goes off. I tell them almost verbatim,

"Excuse me! Can you prove I just stole something?! Then move it!" then I sometime go bitch and wave my hand at them. I cant help it... it jsut wseems so rude that because a few people steal, we all should be treated like criminals. Forget it!

But anyway, I am not the only person who has sdone that, so they cannot like their jobs.

I am a high school student that works as sort of a private service tech until I get the money to get my A+ cert. Man I get some stupid jobs. I don't where to start. I've gotten the plugged a phone line into an RJ-45 port before, one person went through three hard drives because their system was turning off (hibernating) after leaving it for a whle because power management was enabled, one time a computer store worked on a system, they left a screw flopping around inside the case and they couldn't fix it because they weren't smart enough to pop in a Windows cd (the registry was so messed up windows couldn't start and not backed up, I don't wanna know what caused it).

I usually get set up with jobs through people I know, I do about 1-2 "repair jobs" a week to put gas in my car.

grrrrrr... i'm tired of being nice to people. i hate every single one of the idiots who call me up each day, asking for this and that... information which adds to nothing, and who did what on which day so that i can say that i did what when?... i HAAAATTTTEEE being a secretary.... i hate being underutilized... i hate being condescended... i hate being patronized... i hate every loser that flirts with me... i hate the job market... i hate every pissant who talks to me like gender has something to do with intellience. i hate not having any money... i hate not having any certs...

dammit. i'm not having a good day.

no doubt! i work at a fscking help desk, and when the calls are slow i break out my laptop with slack8 installed (we're still running 98 on the pcs here... ::shudder::). there's only one rj-45 jack in my cube, so i brought in a hub and sat it behind my monitor so that i could get online on my linux box. i never did anything i couldn't have been doing on my work pc, just browsing forums (namely, this one), reading email and chatting. perhaps even writing the occasional bash or perl script, but only for my personal use.

so after a month of this i was pissed as hell to get the following email:
------------------------------------------------------------

[my work name],

It has been brought to my attention that you have been bringing in a personal laptop and a switch/ hub and connecting these to the [stupid company] network while at work.

I wanted to take the opportunity to clarify [stupid company] and [another stupid company's] policy regarding network usage. Unfortunately, personal laptops cannot be connected to the [stupid company's] network unless they are running the [stupid company's] Global Client load. Additionally, connection of these devices must also be approved by [stupid company] management as well as myself. It is not something we make a habit of.

Switches, hubs and other similar devices, owned by the end user, are not to be connected to the network under any circumstances. The only acceptable devices are those installed and maintained by HP or other agents of [stupid] Company.

I am asking that you cease connecting your laptop to the network and that you do not connect any switches or hubs at any time, please.

If you require any further clarification, please do not hesitate to contact me.

[stupid dick], MCSE (NT 4.0/ 2000)
[mumbo jumbo] Administrator, [stupid] Company
Email: [heh...]

----------------------------------------------------------------
can someone tell me wtf is up with that?!?! i think someone just wanted to get off on the fact that he's MCSE certified... which, in my opinion means you know how to right-click>properties with the upper-class. :-)

the thing that really ticked me off about that is that i have among the highest resolved calls average (percentage of problems i solve over the phone) and i took about 35% more calls per day than we're expected to. obviously having the laptop wasn't getting in the way of my "work"... so kicking me off was personal.

although, i did hear him mention later on that i was using "hacking software" when telling a friend i was running linux. ahh... to be dumb, old, and ignorant...

Short of Prozac/Lithium Lattes, this is un-resolvable, I recommend that you start taking it out on people immediately.

Tell them they can't have it.

Huh?

I hate being a clerk, lets booze up and riot!

Ten minutes ago: "Finegan, could you help me, my computer is broken."

I look at over the cube wall: "Try plugging it back in."

No kidding.

Yesterday, helping student figure out wireless LAN, to Finegan: "Oh no, there probably isn't a way to network this, OSX is too new."

Finegan: "What, BSD, the Mach kernel and a Lucent Silver wireless card? None of that is younger than 3 years."

Them: "Huh?"

All of them? And what is this job market of which you speak? There still is one? I thought it a myth.

It does. Men are dumb. No secret there. We are ruled by Mr. Squinty.

I heard kidneys are going for a lot these days, especially in India. Start with your Boss's.

Switch to Tic-Tacs.

I hope that at least makes you snicker.



From Webster:

Main Entry: hack
Pronunciation: 'hak
Function: verb

4 a : to write computer programs for enjoyment b : to gain access to a computer illegally

See, you are using hacking software, but unfortunately I think he was mistakingly refering to definition b). In order to correct this mistake, I recommend administering an Oxford English Dictionary, and after a thorough re-read of that letter, a copy of White+Strunk's Elements of Style to boot. Administering the dose at a muzzle velocity of about 15 Meters/second should do.

Cheers,

Finegan

I'm not real sure what they would say about personel laptops on the company network, they're real up on security around here.

So I put Linux on my company laptop.

I can call my job boring, you know sitting all day long staring at Appworx screen, re-spooling reports, writing shell and perl scripts to perfect and polish notification system, or doing nothing all day long and reading, asking, answering posts here, and wishing my linux bx was in front of me instead of NT workstaion ages old. But I think the most boring job is the security personel in our building holds. I work a couple of blocks away from World Trade Center, and after Sept.11 security floaded our building and yu know basically every skyscrapper in the city, NYSE is nearby, and so on. So basically their job is just look at ID's and scan bags through an X-ray machine. So if I want to get a cup of coffee downstairs, I make a trip in the elevator from 31st floor to lobby where adventure begins, if for some reason I leave my ID at my desk, no way I can get in even without interaction with the security manager, though most of the security guys by now know you, especially me, I happened to be one unfortunate to exchange backup tapes, it also involves trips downstaris with a metal box with tapes inside, and bringing in another metal box with tapes inside, every time I have to explain to the same person that I have magnetic tapes in the box that cannot be scanned through the X-ray machine, and sometimes I forget the key from the box upstairs, so can you imagine this, I have to go upstairs without boxes to get the key, bring it back downstais, open the box, let the guy glimp at the tapes, and happy go upstairs. Now combine this with an abcent ID. I have to go to the security manager, tell him my name and where I work, he calls the receptionist to verify my identity, I show him my driver's license, he issues a temp pass, and then I can go through the security barrier. One day I didn't have the driver's license with me, and I spent an hour downstairs when my boss came down to pick me up. That was fun. Hope it was clear. And bomb-sniffing dogs are cool down here, they are bored as myself there.